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Author
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Topic: Small yacth Navigation and Weather
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bobsamson
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posted February 23, 2011 06:55 AM
I am curtently workig through the weather course and thoroughly enjoy it. BUT...I sail on a Cobo Rico 38 extnesively on the east coast with trips to Bermuda ervery few years. Being on a small boat I have several constraints;
1) No Printer
2) No e-mail
3) No satilite phone
4) A yacht which is always in motion
Offshore I rely on the FAX and voice transmissions and "SouthBound II" for real time weather. Since I cannot print, I would find it difficult to interprete the Isobars and compare them to the above sources.
Any thoughts on this matter.
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David Burch
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posted February 23, 2011 08:45 AM
Good questions, but may i first ask:
Do you have a SSB?
do you have a pactor modem?
do you have a computer on board?
--david
From: Starpath, Seattle, WA
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bobsamson
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posted February 24, 2011 06:50 AM
ICOM 710RT Ham Modified
Pactor IIe upgraded to a Pactor three
Dell Inspiron N5010
I have all the equipment to receive the weather faxes and high seas voice just cannot print. Also as I am sure you can understand conservation of power is key in a small boat.
Thanks for your reply
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David Burch
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posted February 24, 2011 09:09 PM
with that fine set of equipment you can get the maps with sail mail, and also you can get the grib maps. these would be your workhorse data since they are so much smaller to transmit than the graphic maps. You can get compressed graphic maps from www.mailasail.com, which is better than sail mail for graphic maps. these matters are discussed later in the course.
also you might be better off getting the voice in text format. it will be much faster and take less air time and power. just request the reports via ftp mail... again, covered later.
although there are very good second hand sources of weather info underway, we are always best having the primary information on hand to help interpret what others might suggest.
From: Starpath, Seattle, WA
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Curtis
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posted August 02, 2011 03:17 PM
Bob,
Maybe a bit late for a comment, but why do you feel the need to print?
Paper is evil in my book (except maybe for back-up paper charts). If you want to interpolate isobars on weather fax (or make measurements on any other digital image) then there are some good tools out there for doing it. These are from my perspective, quicker and easier to use than paper.
Take a look at http://www.iconico.com/
From: NW Carib
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David Burch
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posted August 03, 2011 01:49 PM
We have to agree that you can do more and more accurately on the screen than on paper.... but these seem relatively expensive apps.
free graphics and vector GNU programs like gimp and inkscape will do all of these functions and very much more.
maybe the ones you list are easier to use since they have such limited functions?
but i would definitely try the others since we have need for graphics work on board anyway to send pictures home!
From: Starpath, Seattle, WA
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